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Rethink

If you want to totally rethink what you are doing in business you need to get your customers to rethink what they’re doing.

And if you really do get them to rethink what they’re doing – that’s a huge win for you.

Apple did it. Like for the last 10 years.

Advanced Auto Small Engine Repair in my little town did it on Friday.

It’s a tough world out there. Most of us in sales and service know that even when customers love us – they are, by the time they call about that new service you’ve been pitching or your flyer or your email, – they’ve done the research and while you’re still in the game- it’s a price war between you and your competitors or them sticking with the status quo- just doing what they’ve always done.

Disrupt the thinking upstream. Teach. Preach. Challenge.

Be that person or that company.

Apple did it –blah blah blah we know that. And their disruptive tech did make us rethink what we are doing but it extends elsewhere too. Do you think they did some research and asked you and me if when you go in the store, that we wanted some 6 foot 3 bearded technical guru to greet you in the first 8 feet, get your name and ask what you are here for? Heck no.

They just did it. And that’s the way it is. We have been taught. But we had been taught before by Apple. They reshaped our thinking. We believe. We trust.

I had a first world problem Thursday night. My snowblower after a total of 3 feet exploded. Well I thought it exploded: the chute shot into the air about 10 feet. I don’t have a clue. Next day, my wife got a recommendation from a friend about Advanced Auto and they drove up, loaded the snowblower on the truck and then plowed my driveway. Plowed the driveway. They didn’t ask, they didn’t check, they just did it.

3 hours later they returned with a fixed blower, an education about the machine, a conversation about what I should watch for, an invitation to learn more and not a word about plowing the driveway except humble acknowledgment of my thanks.

While Advantage Auto didn’t wholly disrupt my thinking – they did reshape my thoughts about service expectations and education in a small way. It’s a great start for them. I grabbed 6 of their business cards and a promise to myself about saying a few things on social media.

The perfect world for changing your business or your approach is realizing and then innovating on changing the way your customers not just think and work with you, but changing the way they do their own business for the better.